The Rebels Organize

Havermouth, Present Time

“I’m sorry,” Heath was jolted from erotic fantasy into the real world with a jarring abruptness. “What did you say?”

“I said that you should get dressed, my mate,” Talen held out a pair of jeans. “Cameron and Rhett were at the high school, but there have been explosions there tonight, and we need to find out if they are okay. And Morgana has gone. I think that she has gone after them.”

“Wha…?” Heath pulled back his thoughts. Everything was blurred and confused but sifted back into focus as he concentrated. He remembered being separated from Cameron, and then his torture, waking in Talen’s arms, their vows, the sex… How long had it been? And Cameron had still been trapped… Not alone though, Rhett had gone. “Shit. They are okay though?” He asked, his voice hoarse.

“The explosions tonight… I don’t know,” Talen admitted heavily, his composure dropping to reveal the anxiety below it. “I do not know. We would know, I feel, if Cameron and Rhett were…?” He trailed off, leaving them both in horror of the incomplete sentence.

“Yes,” Heath nodded his head empathically. It was too terrible to even contemplate, and he was certain that something so horrible could not happen without him even knowing about it. “Yes, we would know.” He would know, he told himself firmly, he would know.

“And Morgana… I am also certain that we would know,” Talen gripped Heath’s shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. “But I will feel better if I had them in my arms, as I’m sure you would also.”

“I can’t believe… The school exploded?” Heath struggled to process it. “What else have I missed?”

“A lot,” Talen said grimly. “What do you remember?”

Heath frowned searching his thoughts. “It’s… Parts are very vague,” he admitted heavily. “I remember…” He remembered being pinned helpless to the chair, with his trousers around his calves, feeling the cold air against his balls, and the look in the torturer’s eyes as he’d reached between Heath’s thighs.

Bile rose in Heath’s throat, and he clasped a hand over his mouth, swallowing it back. “I’m going to kill that f-ker,” he said thickly, covering for his discomfort, for the raw helplessness that he’d felt, the exposed vulnerability of having a stranger handle his genitals knowing that person intended to use them to hurt him. There was a whole nightmare that was connected to that realization, that would probably haunt him for the rest of his life, he thought grimly. He was an alpha, for f-k sake, the alpha of a Triquetra, which was… He couldn’t… He wasn’t…

He wasn’t meant to feel so fragile.

He shook himself physically, banishing the physical sensation of the memory, and lifted his eyes to Talen’s. The vampire’s expression was entirely too knowing, he thought, feeling as if Talen’ gaze stripped him back to his bones. “I…” He said, brokenly.

“I, too, have been a prisoner, a slave,” Talen said slowly, as if pulling the words up from a deep, darkness within, each costing him pain. “My father had been handing over control gradually as was our way. No man is ever meant to rule for eternity, it is always a temporary role, a transitory guardianship for the next generation. I was close to assuming the leadership of my people, perhaps fifty years, or so? Hmm,” he hummed, uncomfortably, looking down as he buttoned up his shirt, his pain evident on his face. “Close. The transition might have taken decades, but I had… I was confident and I had embraced it, I knew that it was my role and that I was capable of fulfilling it…”

He swallowed thickly. “And then, when I was just over a century of age, I returned home one season to find that my home had been burnt to the ground, along with my family. I pursued the attackers through the country, past destroyed stronghold, to destroyed stronghold, my anger growing and burning within me until,” he blew out a breath, the pain still vivid. “Until I reached the stronghold of my uncle and found that his second mate and son had… Hmph,” he sighed out the sound, it’s richness a full sentence in itself. He shook his head, unable to put to words the tragedy. “I was…”

He swallowed thickly. “I was betrayed,” the betrayal was still in his voice, raw and visceral. “I was betrayed, poisoned, weakened, and imprisoned. I was sent to the human’s lands, and there magical cuffs were put upon me,” he looked at his wrists as if still seeing those bindings. “Bindings created by a witch, who they continued to torment, seeming determined to torture unto death. I broke free, and took her with me, making her my second child, Meguitte,” his eyes flared red with his rebellion against the humans who had tried and failed to break him, the tension of his confession breaking. “I have always adopted rebels,” Talen’s smile was all teeth.

Heath’s lips curled. “I’d believe that.”

Talen laughed wryly through his nose. “So, says one of my adopted rebels, little mate.”

“Now,” Heath flirted, trying to distract his mate from the weight of that terrible memory and bring him fully back into the present. “I find that insulting. I’m not little.”

“No,” Talen purred, stroking his hand down Heath’s stomach to close around his c-ck so that Heath sucked in air through his nose, his eyes widening at the sudden kick back into desire, his hyper-sensitized body aching, adrenaline from his fear for his mates converting into a frantic need to f-k. “Not little at all,” the vampire purred.

Heath panted. Talen’s hand seemed to send electrical currents shoot along his nerves. “I hope not. Enough to make you cry out my name as you come,” he groaned, reaching out to stroke his hands up Talen’s sides, seeking to pull him closer.

Talen laughed under his breath, his eyes flaring again with red light. “Very true, my mate,” he rumbled. “Hopefully for the rest of my very long life. But now, put on your f-king jeans. Cameron and, probably Rhett, were at that school and it exploded. I refuse to believe that they came to harm in the explosion. I am sure that I would know…”

“We would know,” Heath agreed meeting the vampire’s eyes.

Talen nodded solemnly. “We would surely know,” he agreed. “That we don’t, I’m choosing to think as a sign that our mates are out there…”

Heath nodded. “Let’s go and bring our mates home.”

Leighton’s workroom was empty, but at the bottom of the stairs, they became trapped by a crowd of vampires and witches, their voices tangling as they all spoke, and the air fetid with the sharp scent of fear and adrenaline.

“Silence!” Sigrid spoke up, her voice commanding. The room fell still and silent. “Very well. This is what we’re going to do. The witches are going to scry and cast another mirror spell, and my children and I will continue our search of the town. Let us… Talen,” she interrupted herself and all heads turned to where the vampire stood next to Heath on the last stair. “Heath,” she smiled. “Welcome brother and father both.”

“That is just…” Heath shook his head as he realized that both titles were directed to him.  A vampire’s family structure was convoluted, he thought, as in being turned by Talen, he became a sibling to Sigrid, and in becoming Talen’s mate, he became a parent. But then, he admitted to himself, he was part of a Triquetra, and therefore an expert at complicated relationships. “Hi, Sigrid.”

“We were just organizing to return to searching,” Sigrid told Talen.

“I have it,” the head witch, Aislen’s friend, entered the hallway from one of the small offices that they were using as bedrooms, holding up a notepad and pen. “Let’s hope that we can do this without Morgana.”

“What does it say?” Heath wondered.

The witch blushed. “Nothing yet. She wrote a poem last time, so I think that I should keep it consistent, but I suck at poetry.”

“She likes her poetry,” Heath agreed stepping off the stairs and pushing through the vampires and witches to take the paper from her. He frowned as he tried to think of what to say.

“Here,” Talen took the pen and notepad and braced against Heath’s back.

“If we’re hungry,” Tyler asked from amongst the vampires, and Heath started, seeing the red glow in the man’s eyes. “Can we grab a bite to eat whilst we’re out searching?”

Talen laughed under his breath and reached out to drag the man into his embrace, pressing a kiss into his hair before releasing him. “Congratulations,” he said.

Tyler grinned. “Same to you.”

“Be safe out there,” Talen told him paternally. “And, yes, you can feed from any Van Helsings that you encounter.” He returned to bracing the notepad against Heath and began to write.

Heath’s stomach rumbled and he felt a wave of nausea as he pressed his hand to it, grimacing. “Tyler’s not the only one hungry.”

“I will be going to the other Van Helsing sites,” Sigrid announced, addressing the vampires. “We know that they’ve occupied some of the hotels. With the town hall and the school destroyed, they will need to regroup somewhere, and if Talen’s mates are still prisoners, they will be relocated there.”

“Heath and I will go to the school and try to find any sign of our mates,” Talen handed the notepad to the witch. “Everyone else search the streets between the school and here. They will try to return to us, so it’s possible that they can be found enroute.”

Heath leaned over the witch and raised his eyebrows as he read the lines. “Aislen will like that.”

“Alright,” Talen looked around at the odd gathering. “Remember that the people of Havermouth are innocents in this, but the Van Helsings are our enemies, and as such, stay safe, and feel free to use violence against them.”

“Talen,” Leighton stood in the doorway to the large chamber of zombies. “A word?”

“Be safe,” Talen said to Sigrid and squeezed Tyler’s shoulder as he passed him, working his way to Leighton. In the room behind the warlock, Heath could see Leighton’s wife and daughter moving between the sleeping people. “I am sorry to be depriving you of blood,” Talen said to Leighton.

“All those within this room have been treated,” Leighton replied, glancing over his shoulder. “I am keeping them in stasis until things are calmer. They will need to acclimate to a new world, and waking in the current situation…” He shook his head. “I wanted to tell you that I will be leaving. I need to cross the river and return to the cave, to see if I am still missing people, and I need to access my spell components from my house in order to try to trace just where in the water the source of contamination is coming from, so I can retrieve the dead and dispose of them.”

“Will the water go back to normal, after?” Heath wondered.

“I don’t know,” Leighton admitted heavily. “Another reason that I need to return to my home. I will attempt to create a water purification spell, in the hopes of eradicating the contamination and making the water safe again. This… mess of mine,” he sighed heavily. “Will take some time to sort out. I need to find the humans who have been infected by the bites, or the water, and help them. My duties have expanded and not shrunk, unfortunately. My penance for my mistake is far from done.”

“I’m sorry,” Talen said with empathy. “And I am sorry that we are unable to help more.”

“I will leave my wife and daughter to guard these ones,” Leighton gestured to the room. “And return as soon as I can. I ask you to watch over my Verina and Mercy. They are… everything to me,” he said softly. “We have never been parted. I would take them with me, but then I will be leaving the sleepers vulnerable…”

“We will do everything in our power to look after your loved ones,” Talen promised.

“Thank you,” Leighton bowed his head. “For everything. And I wish you luck in finding Aislen Carter and your missing werewolves,” his eyes rested on Heath. “I am glad to see that you survived the change, Heath Gale,” he said. “And I’m very intrigued as to what you now are and what you can do.”

“So am I,” Heath replied grimly. “And we’re going to find out just what a hybrid can so if my mates have been harmed by the Van Helsings. I guarantee it will be painful for them.”